Empire Studies and the imperial turn are flourishing in the last decades. Empires have been scrutinized through various aspects and focused on by different perspectives and approaches. However, there are still major shortcomings and lacunae in all these previous studies that have to be addressed. The classifications and definitions so far proposed are still debatable and the selection of what is regarded to represent an "empire" is rather unsystematic. Comprehensive structural connections that transcend epochs and historical periods are only partially taken into consideration. This is...